Jerome

Jerome (ジェロム)
Breed	German Shepherd
Affiliation	Jerome's Squad (leader), Ōu army
First appearance	GDW vol 3 chpt 3, GDW ep 4
Last appearance	GDW ep 26
Family or owners	Maxime (Brother-in-Law), 6 unnamed pups (manga only)
Status	Alive (manga) Deceased (Anime: Drowned)
Mate	Lydia (manga only)
Voiced by	Masaya Takatsuka
Meaning of name	Sacred name
Age	10-11 years old

Jerome is an Ohu soldier and Weed's strategist.
Originally, he was a contract killer and guard dog trained by humans. He was a leader of a group which mission was to hunt down the P4.

The Personality in the series

Jerome is a brave, determined and serious dog.
He is faces hardships with a calm attitude. Jerome is very attentive and often notices things the other dogs don't.

Jerome the responsibility of his actions. He was very devoted for his job and seems like he was slightly brainwashed by the training, as he believed the dogs have to bear any kind of treatment from humans without fighting back. It's been mentioned that his past as a contract killer has scarred his mind.

He was ready to sacrifice himself and his minions for their mission.
He greatly respects Gin, Smith, and Weed who are all ready to sacrifice themselves for others. From them, he learned to sacrifice himself for his friends. He was also deeply moved when Weed and his friends were ready to sacrifice themselves for him.

He especially respects Weed and wants to protect him no matter what, believing that Weed has the unique sense of justice the world needs. Weed's great sense of justice made Jerome see his own morals as ugly and unclean. He seeks to become more like Weed in sense of moral.

Jerome knows he isn't fully good-hearted and believes there is some evil inside him. According to him, he doesn't seek for happiness and isn't good-hearted enough to live for the happiness of others.
He was ready to disobey Weed's order and kill the Hougen's spies in order to protect his comrades and also in order to do the dirty work for Weed.

He isn't afraid of death but he seems to be very afraid of humiliation. He feels great shame because he ordered his minions to die and didn't die with them. He believes he has no right to lead anyone and that only his death will be amend for the deaths of his minions. He constantly seeks for a place where he can die a honorable death, often doing rather suicidal actions and wishing to die instead of living in constant shame.

He is very afraid that instead of a honorable death, he will die a shameful one. Once Hougen almost managed to fulfill this fear.

Anime

Jerome is a trained guard dog and assassin. He was sent after P4 by his creators to destroy it. He originally had 13 subordinates; the last four of them (Rocca, North, Robert, and Wheeler) were killed by P4. After the death of P4 and all was peaceful once more, he became Weed's adviser, and taught him how to fight better. 

When a human shot his leg with a bullet, the Kouga ninja dog Tesshin offered to take it out one night, but Jerome told Tesshin to keep the bullet in his leg as a punishment for his previous actions as an assassin. Later, Jerome was driven out of Weed's pack by Weed himself when he murdered two of Hougen's assassins: Lector and Thunder. He worked for Weed independently from then on, along with his new pack of Shikoku dogs. Jerome finally meets Weed after saving Reika from a river. He then saves GB from Hougen. As he fought Hougen, pain struck into his leg due to the bullet.

Jerome is then thrashed by Hougen and is thrown into the river. Weed jumps in and tries to save Jerome. In the river before his "death", Jerome had saved Weed by holding his head above the water until he was rescued. Jerome eagerly awaits to meet his fallen comrades again and, interestingly, P4 too. In the last episode, Jerome's ghost appears to Weed in a field of flowers, but then vanishes.

Some fans are still in doubt if he really died in the anime or if he survived and he actually apeared to Weed but left.

Manga

Jerome was one of the guard dogs who's job was to make sure that P4 didn’t escape from the scientific institute. When P4 escapes anyway, Jerome and his soldiers do everything they can to stop him. Jerome meets Weed in the mountains of Ōu where he at once realizes that he is the son of Gin. He now tries to get Weed to join the fight against P4 and succeed. During the fight, P4 kills all of Jerome’s soldiers and hurts Jerome badly. 

However, P4 dies and Jerome survives. He then joins Weed’s group to find and help Weed’s father, Gin, the Great Leader of Ōu. Jerome gets shot in the leg by a human and has to fight one of the humans’ dogs called Ron. Ron bites off Jerome’s ear but looses the fight.

Jerome is known in the pack as the assassin, a name which he lives up to. When he discovers two of Hougen's spies, he kills them even though Weed told him to leave them alone. As a punishment, Weed sends him away from his pack. However, Jerome does not leave Weed entirely, but stays close in case something should happen. He is welcomed back when the fight against Hougen begins. 

Jerome and Weed are the first to feel Hougen's fangs and they are thrown into a roaring river. Here, Jerome nearly kills himself when trying to keep Weed's head above the water. Because of this, Jerome cannot participate in the final battle, but is brought to the human, Daisuke, by GB.

Lydia and Jerome

Just as Hougen is defeated, Jerome hears the howls of the Ōu army whilst in the care of Daisuke. Once he is fully recovered, he is relased back into the wild. Jerome travels up to the mountains and is ambushed by monkeys who are after some puppies. Here, he encounters Yukimura, Weed's older brother, who saves him from the monkeys. When Weed comes to search for Jerome, he too meets Yukimura. All of them join forces to kill the baboon general, Shougun, who threatens to take over Yukimura's territory.

Again, Jerome manages to escape Weed and flee to Hokkaido where he hides in shame over his past (By this it  meant the episode where he killed Hougen's spies). In Hokkaido, he meets Hakuro, an old Ōu warrior. 

Hakuro tells Jerome to watch out, since intruders have started to threaten their land. Jerome doesn't listen very carefully and is soon face to face with one of the intruders, a female German Shepherd named Lydia.

Lydia lures him into an ambush where the leader of the intruders, a German Shepherd named Victor, attacks him. Jerome is seriously wounded and taken hostage. Lydia tries to trick him into telling where Hakuro is hiding, but Jerome tricks her instead. He fakes the seriousness of his wounds and Lydia believes that there's no need to guard him. Jerome escapes as soon as she leaves and flees back to Hakuro, who leaves him to recover at the Collie, Ramu's home.

When Jerome is recovered, he runs back to help Hakuro, only to find he was killed by Victor. Unfortunately, he bumps into Victor and is taken hostage again. However, he is not killed since Lydia manages to convince Victor that they need Jerome alive. Slowly, Jerome starts to fancy Lydia and they both fall in love. Victor leaves Jerome behind, guarded by Lydia. Suddenly, the Ohu commander, Akame appears and follows Jerome to the Ohu army's base for safety. Jerome follows Gin's platoon when they are all taken hostage by Victor in a gorge.

In the gorge, Jerome and the others face many days without food or water. When the fight begins between Victor's army and the Ōu army, Jerome takes part in the fight, but is quickly knocked out by Bozlef. When he comes to, he continues to fight alongside Lydia. Like most of the Ōu army, Jerome is badly wounded by the Russian dogs. Shortly, Daisuke and Hidetoshi appear on the scene and Jerome is healed along with the rest of the injured dogs.

After the battle against the Hybrid bears ends, Jerome has 6 unnamed puppies with Lydia.

Ginga Densetsu Weed: Orion

Jerome survives the volcanic disaster along with his mate Lydia and their puppies.

See more pictures in Jerome (Photo Gallery)